Eagle snatches kid on video, maybe

MONTREAL -- A video making the rounds on YouTube shows what is described as a golden eagle purportedly snatching a kid on the playground for a few seconds in a Montreal park.

The video, titled "Golden Eagles Snatches Kid" and posted Tuesday by MrNuclearCat, has video experts weighing in on whether it is real.

On the one hand, shadows formed by the eagle and the child match up correctly and would be difficult to duplicate.

On the other hand, as one commenter says on the YouTube site: "This is fake and you can tell by listening to the voices in the videos. Nobody talks like that."

Likewise, opennewscast writes, "I've been working with digital images professionally for 15 years, and I'm convinced this is fake. The swoop down at 0:10 looks just like cheap CGI to me."

The New Statesman's Alex Hern digs deeply into the story (by online standards, at least) and notes that the eagle's right wing, oddly, becomes transparent in one frame.

The New Statesman also notes the observation on Twitter from the Isle of Mull Eagle Watch team that claims the bird is not, in fact, a golden eagle, but a "juv eastern imperial eagle not known to frequent Montreal parks!"